Published on 01:26 PM, March 22, 2018

India successfully tests supersonic cruise missile

Star Online Report

India today successfully flight-tested its supersonic cruise missile 'Brahmos' in a desert in Rajasthan state.

The missile flew in the designated trajectory and hit the target with pin-point accuracy in the trial site in the desert at Pokhran, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted.

Pokharan is also the site where India had tested nuclear devices--first in 1974 and then in 1998.

"Formidable Supersonic Cruise Missile #BrahMos was successfully flight tested at 8:42 AM today at Pokhran test range, Rajasthan. The precision strike weapon with Indian-made seeker flew in its designated trajectory and hit the target with pin-point accuracy," she said in an official Twitter account post.

The flight-test today comes nearly four months after the Brahmos was successfully test-fired for the first time from the Indian Air Force's frontline Sukhoi-30 MKI combat jet.

In this AFP file photo, a handout photograph released by the Indian Defence Ministry on November 1, 2015, a BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is test-fired from newly-commissioned indigeneous guided missile destroyer the INS Kochi. Conducted off India's west coast, the missile hit a target in the form of a decommissioned naval ship, marking a step in the operationalisation of the Navy's latest guided-missile stealth destroyer. AFP file photo

The sleek supersonic cruise missile flies at almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8. The Indian armed forces have already inducted the 290-km range land and warship-based versions of the missile over the last decade.

Sitharaman congratulated state-owned Defence Research Development Organization, the armed forces and the defence industry for the successful flight test of the Brahmos and said it "will further bolster our national security."

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